This invention relates to craft kits for assembling simulated stained glass articles constituted of light-transmissive plastic components, to the articles thus produced, and to molded plastic substrates for use in the kits and articles.
Non-limiting examples of these articles are decorative panels or plaques for hanging in windows or in openings of doors, so as to be transmissively illuminated by daylight; ornaments that can be hung in clear open air to turn or sway in a breeze, catching the sun's rays; and holiday ornaments, e.g., hung on Christmas trees in front of lights. When light shines through such a panel or ornament, an image formed by an arrangement of differently colored and shaped pieces of transparent or translucent plastic mounted side by side in the panel or ornament is brightly visible. Alternatively, the article may be effectively displayed simply as hung on a wall without being transmissively illuminated by any light source behind it.
Conventional stained glass windows, as known and used in religious edifices and other public buildings for many centuries, are typically more or less vertical planar assemblies of pieces of generally flat colored glass held together by cames, which are elongated strips or narrow frames of lead combined in an interconnected arrangement cooperatively defining the design of the stained glass window image or images and providing stable structural support for the colored glass elements of the window. Each of the cames may be H-shaped in cross-section, providing opposed grooves for respectively receiving edges of adjacent pieces of glass. Thus, each piece of glass is completely peripherally surrounded and held by cames in proximate relation to other similarly held pieces of glass. The different colors of glass used, the shapes of the individual pieces, and the positions in which they are held in the design by the cames, determine the content and appearance of the image they form. The cames themselves, being made of dark metal, are unobtrusive especially in contrast with the glow of daylight transmitted through the glass pieces; and, since the cames enclose the entire peripheries of the colored glass pieces, no haloes of white daylight are visible between the pieces and the cames. Consequently, the visual effect of the daylight-illuminated window is a glowing image made up of the colors of the constituent glass pieces. On inspection, the surfaces of the individual glass pieces may not be uniformly planar (especially in the case of older windows) and the cames both differ in surface texture from the glass and protrude slightly beyond the surfaces of the glass pieces they hold.
The creation of real stained glass windows is a highly sophisticated craft, requiring special skills and expertise in glassmaking, glass cutting and metalworking, and the products of this craft tend to be heavy, expensive and fragile. However, articles such as plaques or panels simulating the appearance of stained glass images can be desirable decorative accessories for the home and elsewhere. In addition, kits enabling persons with no relevant advanced skills or expertise to produce simulated stained glass works can have recreational and educational value. Plastics can serve as a medium for such production affording advantages of relatively low cost, low weight and low frangibility.
Accordingly, it has heretofore been proposed to provide systems (kits or methods) for producing simulated stained glass objects such as panels or ornaments, utilizing elements of plastic as components. One such system utilizes pieces of textured plastic to create elements of a pattern; a user places these pieces on a sheet of adhesive plastic to form a completed pattern, and deposits a plastic adhesive in the form of a bead overlapping adjacent pieces of textured plastic to simulate cames. Another system employs plastic panels with a design delineated by surface indentations in which a user, employing a brush, deposits coloring medium to simulate the appearance of stained glass. A further system has pieces of plastic, colored throughout their depth, which a user joins together with a plastic adhesive to form a simulation of stained glass. In a known kit, a flat plastic substrate has a pattern of spaces defined by black printed lines which are intended to simulate cames when self-sticking pieces of colored plastic are carefully positioned in the spaces; the effectiveness of the simulation, however, is limited by the two-dimensional nature of the came lines. In other respects as well, these known systems have drawbacks because the precise positioning of colored pieces on a flat sheet (even having flat guide lines) is difficult for young children and the use of fluent paint, adhesives or other materials can also be difficult as well as messy.